Erica's Travel Adventures

Casa Aleluya update

emsussman — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 04:44:00 GMT

Casa Aleluya updates:

I have grown absolutely in love with the children and staff at Casa. I don’t know how I am going to be able to leave them! I have become friends with the women who work there and am in love with every kid I work with. They have all stopped calling me gringa (for the most part) and call me Erica (actually, Elica). I have learned so many of their stories and they are all so sad.

There is a girl who is about 15 months old whose mom was 13 when she got pregnant with her. Her mom and her were both taken to the orphanage, but the mom left soon after.

Another girl who also has a teenage mom (the girl is 3 and her mom is 15 right now) comes just for the day because her grandma works at the orphanage. Her mom used to live at Casa but got sent somewhere else because she got pregnant again. Another girl, also about 15 months is there because both of her parents are drug addicts and alcoholics. I’ve seen about 5 new kids come in, and each one of them is terrified. They spend the first few days at the orphanage by themselves crying when anyone comes near them or curled up in someone’s arms. It is awful.

At one point, a new little girl and her sister came to Casa, and I have gotten to know the older sister, Karen, who is 15 because she always comes to visit her sister. She cried for the first week every time I saw her. We talked and she would tell me that she misses her mom and wants to go home. She asked me if I could take her on the bus with me to her house and if I had a phone that she could use to call her mom. I had to tell her no. She was miserable. I spent a lot of time with her. She told me she wants to go to the United States to work and study. I helped her with her English homework one day, too. She is a sweet girl, but she is very angry. She got into a fight with another girl one day, and I saw her getting on the bus with some women from the orphanage one morning. I asked her little sister where she was and her sister said she didn’t know. I was worried so the next day when I didn’t see her again I asked Irene, the woman in charge, where Karen went. She told me about the fight at the she almost got sent to the city to another facility for kids with behavioral problems, but that luckily the man in charge of the orphanage, “Papi,” decided to give her another chance. Irene also told me that Karen and her sister are at the orphanage because after her parents got divorced her mom started dated someone who is abusive. They have 3 other siblings who are still with her mom because they were at school when the police came to the house. I am so glad she wasn’t sent away because it would not have been good for her. I saw her last week and she told me that she is going home next week permanently to be with her mom again. I really hope it is because the boyfriend is out of her life.

I don’t know how I am going to say goodbye to these people. I spend a lot of time in the kitchen with Sandra and Carla and have become friends with them and also with the women in the baby room, Stefanie and Blanca. I am already trying to figure out another time to come back to Guatemala so that I can stay at the actual orphanage and spend more time there. I have two more days left with the kids and I plan to make the best of it! I am going to buy a piñata for my last day with them.

Lake Atitlan, Semuc Champey, Guate

emsussman — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 04:01:00 GMT

I have gotten lazy with writing so I have way too much to catch up on! I’m going to do one blog entry to write about the rest of the trips I have taken and I separate one to write about the last few weeks of my time in Antigua and at my orphanage.

After Tikal the next trip I took was another weekend at Lake Atitlan. This time, we went with my roommate Emily’s friend Jorge to his family’s home on the Lake in a town called Cerro del Oro. It was a beautiful house! I went with Emily, Dave, Desi, Josey, Keaira, Jorge, Noah, Erick, Marvin, and Andy. It was a really fun weekend! We got there Friday night and hung out and played some card games. Saturday morning we woke up and cooked breakfast (it was nice to make our own food, even though it has been incredible to have 3 delicious meals a day cooked for me!). We spent the day laying out, reading, playing cards, and relaxing at the house. We went in to the lake for a little bit but the water was freezing! Some of us played 3 against 3 soccer, which was also really fun! The Guatemalans are very good at soccer, and I’m not, but it was great.

Sunday Jorge had to be back in Antigua early for church so he took Emily and Dave back with him. The rest of us went to Santiago and San Pedro to spend the day at the lake but in another city. We went to a hostel in San Pedro called the Zoolah (Israeli owned) and went swimming, had a few really good strawberry daquiris, and ate lunch. We left in the evening and Marvin and Erick drove us all back to Antigua before going back to the city.

The next weekend I went to Semuc Champey, which is about an 8-hour drive to really gorgeous fresh water pools. I went with a fairly large group; Emily, Desi, Keaira, MJ, two other girls and a guy Michelle, Nikita, and Isaac (Michelle spent two weeks at the orphanage with me), and then two other women who happened to also be students at Maximo Nivel came too. We left Friday morning at 8:00. Our driver was really nice and he brought is young son and wife on the drive. We stopped every couple of hours. We stopped for lunch at a mall and Desi and I went to find food other than McDonalds. The best we could come up with was Domino’s pizza, but it was much better than McDonald’s. Once we got to Coban (the area near Semuc) we had to get out of the shuttle van and get into the back of a pick up truck (sorry, Mom). We drove 45 minutes on a dirt road to get to our hostel, which is the only one located directly in Semuc Champey. After the drive we were all very grateful to be out of a moving vehicle. We ordered dinner and relaxed for the evening. The hostel was a really fun little place. Dinner is served family style so everybody orders and gets served at the same time. While we waited, one of the tour guides who works there set up a gigantic game of jenga. Desi and MJ and Isaac all played for a little while. After dinner we all went to bed relatively early because the next day was supposed to be exhausting. We also went to bed early because the hostel only has electricity from 6pm-10pm so at 10pm all of the lights go out and the music stops.

We woke up early the next morning and had breakfast. The rest of the people at the hostel had their guide through them, but our group had our shuttle drive as our guide. Rather than doing the hike up to the lookout point to see the view of the pools and then go down to swim in the pools in the morning, we did the cave hike and tubing in the morning. It was nice that rather than one massive group we split off to do our own thing.

Our first activity was the cave. Inside the cave are pools of water from a nearby lake. You hike through with a guide who has a headlamp while the rest of us have candles. Those of us who didn’t have good water shoes were going to wear tennis shoes, but the guides told us to go barefoot (biggest issue of my day, meanwhile). The cave was really cool. Some parts we had to swim through with our candles out of the water and other parts we could walk through easily. At one point we used a rope to climb up the side of the cave to get to the next point. At the end of the tour, you are supposed to jump into a hole into a part of the cave that is dark but the water is deep enough to jump. Our guide stopped us before that to sit down. There was a part of the cave that had some indents in the sides that looked like seats, and our guide asked me if I wanted to sit in there. I figured since the guide was suggesting it, why not. It would be a cool experience. As I was climbing up I realized that I was barefoot climbing a slippery, wet wall with rocks below me. I tried to take another step up and slipped and fell the 5 feet or so down. At first I thought that I escaped with just a couple of bruises, but then I realized that my leg felt like it was on fire. I looked down and saw a huge chunk missing out of my right leg just under my knee. It hurt so badly. I was bleeding a lot and could see the tissue because it was so deep. One of the women with us was a nurse and she swam over to look at it. Isaac was so sweet and held my hand the whole time. Our guide ripped a piece of his shorts to make a makeshift bandage for me. It was really awful, and I was wondering how the hell I was going to get out of the cave. After they wrapped my leg and I calmed down, we headed back out of the cave (unfortunately, nobody in our group was allowed to do the jump into the water because my guide was nervous that someone else would get hurt). Everybody was so nice and helped me swim through and get out of the cave. Our guide took me to a ladder so that I wouldn’t have to do one of the jumps (I was terrified). Once we were out of the cave I relaxed a little bit. We still had the tubing left before I could get back to the hostel so I went with everyone into the river on the tubes (this is the difference between Guatemala and the U.S….). Then they took us to a swing where you jump off into the water. Only MJ and Desi and our guide did it, but it looked really cool. When we got back to the hostel, the nurse and another guy from the hostel looked at my leg, cleaned it, and decided that I needed stitches. After lunch a few guys from the hostel drove me to town with Desi (she is amazing and went with me!) to a clinic. It was a government clinic, so it was free besides the medicine that I paid for. The doctor and nurses were very nice. The only information they asked me for was my name, age, and country of origin. They numbed my leg and put 8 stitches in (I thought it looked good, but apparently I needed more on the outside and some on the inside too). Then they put antiseptic stuff on all of my other cuts and gave me a shot for the pain for after the numbing stuff wore off. I also got an antibiotic to take. Our guide was so kind and offered to let us stay longer the next morning so that Desi and I could go see the pools, but we decided just to go when we got back to the hostel.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to hike up to the lookout point to see all of the pools because it was a hard, 45-minute hike up hill. MJ and Isaac were so nice and took me down to the pool to see them up close though. They walked slowly with me and helped me up and down all of the stairs and took some pictures for me. It was totally worth it because I have never seen anything as stunning as the pools. The water was so clear and beautiful! After the pools we walked back and ordered our dinner and waited for what felt like forever to eat. I was so exhausted from the day that I went to bed early again even though everyone else stayed up to dance and hang out.

The shuttle ride back seemed to take forever. I was uncomfortable because I fell hard on my butt and couldn’t sit in certain positions and my leg hurt. We got pulled over by highway patrol twice and the second time we had to pay a fine because none of us had our passports on us (we are told not to travel with our passports so that they don’t get stolen; these police were corrupt and just wanted money). We got back to Antigua way earlier than I thought we would, I think by 5:00 PM at the very latest. It was good to get back early because usually after a weekend away we get back fairly late.

The next and final trip that I took out of Antigua was to Guatemala City to visit the Farchis one last time. I left Saturday morning and David and Dani picked me up at Oakland Mall. Then they took me to a store (we had time to kill) that is sort of like Ikea, but the whole thing is a massive maze! It had some really cool stuff for the house. Then we met Oshi and Ari and looked at an apartment that they are looking at to either sell or possibly move in to. It was really gorgeous! Their house now is outside of the actual city so the apartment would be much more convenient for them. After, we went to lunch at David’s mom’s house. She was very nice and the food was delicious (it always is when I’m with the Farchis). The girls took me to their youth group for the afternoon at the Jewish Community Center. I went with Dani and her age group, and they were learning about how to become counselors for the program next year. Then Oshi, David, and I dropped Dani and her friend off at a party and we went to dinner and to a bar afterwards to have a couple of drinks. We picked the girls up and spent a little bit of time at their friends’ house. Sunday, they had a wedding to go to right outside of Antigua so Dani and I went to Antigua to watch the processions for Semana Santa while everybody else went to the wedding. We were able to watch from the terrace on my house, which was really nice because the streets were SO crowded! I met my new roommate Trish and she and my other roommate Heather all watched the parade together. Then I took Dani back to the hotel that the wedding was at, and I had to say goodbye to the Farchis!

I have had the most incredible time taking weekend trips, seeing new things and having adventures and I’m so sad that my time in Guatemala is coming to an end!

Tikal!

emsussman — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 06:46:00 GMT

Flores, Tikal, Rio Dulce, Livingston

A couple of weekends ago I finally made the long trip to northern Guatemala to see the Mayan ruins at Tikal. It was incredible! I went with two of my roommates, Dave and Noah, and there were a few others on the trip as well including our friend Katie, Katie’s new roommate Sarah, a really nice guy named Brayden, and a woman in her mid 50’s named Julie. It was a really good group. Friday morning we left at 8:00 AM and drove straight through pretty much the whole day. We stopped in Rio Dulce for lunch and then finished the drive in Flores around 5:00 PM. We went for a walk around the town and then had a couple of drinks before dinner. After dinner we had a few more drinks and then went to bed early because we had to be up and ready to leave at 7 the next morning for Tikal.

Poor Sarah was awake most of the night throwing up from food poisoning, but she still did the whole day at Tikal. We left the hotel around 8:00 AM and drove the 45 minutes to the national park where Tikal is located. On the way, we picked up our guide. He was a really nice and very knowledgeable indigenous man who spoke English, Spanish, and an indigenous language.

*background information on Tikal*

Tikal was built by the Mayans and was a massive city with temples, housing, and thousands of buildings. It is all made of limestone. It was only discovered about 50 years ago because the jungle had grown over it and concealed the entire city. Now, most of Tikal is still under the jungle and is still being excavated. Unfortunately, there is not a lot of funding for these excavations and it is a slow process.

Along the main path we saw the canal system that the Mayans used that, except for some added cement, is still the original thing. Our guide took us first to see the area where the royalty and upper class lived. There were a ton of massive limestone buildings. It is incredible how everything has lasted so well for so long. Next he took us to see the temples etc. in the central area of the mtetropolis (one of the temples was used in filming one of the Star Wars movies). People used to be able to climb that main, massive temple, but one year, 5 tourists fell off and died so they decided it was probably not a great idea. That thing is really steep. It looks stunning, but I would not want to climb it to pray all of the time. We also saw a lot of sacrifice altars. There were at least 9 or 10. These people liked to sacrifice each other, apparently. In one of the rooms we saw a huge face that was meant to represent the rain god. We were able to climb some of the smaller buildings, and even those were high enough to have great views of the area. The steps were huge which I thought was interesting because the indigenous people are all very tiny.

After the central area we moved on to see another couple of temples. One is really high, and we couldn’t climb up the actual thing, but they built stairs to go up the side and eventually be at a beautiful lookout point near the top of the temple. We could see acres of jungle with temples poking out the top. It was very cool. We also saw some monkey, wild turkeys, and attempted to see a tarantula but none would leave their holes in the ground.

After Tikal we were all exhausted (it is a really hot region of the country). We stopped for lunch in the town that we dropped our guide off in, and then drove back to Rio Dulce. Rio Dulce is a beautiful river that feeds into the Caribbean Sea. It took about 4 or 5 hours to get there, and when we stopped it was pouring rain. We got to our hotel and dropped our things off and then went to catch a boat to go for dinner. It was an interesting experience being on the boat. All of the power went out in the city and we were in a small boat in the middle of a massive river with no light except for the small flashlight our driver brought. And it was also pouring rain still. Luckily, we made it to the restaurant in one piece. The food was Mexican, and wasn’t the best I’ve ever had, but I was hungry. After dinner we went back to the hotel and then walked around the town a little bit trying to find bars that were open. Even though it was a Saturday night, the bars all closed around 9 or 10, I think because of the rain. There was a club right across from our hotel that was blasting music so loud until midnight that our rooms were vibrating. We didn’t go there because it cost a lot to go in, but it was really annoying having the music so loud. Eventually we ended up in one of the hotel rooms hanging out playing games.

Sunday morning we went back to the same restaurant for breakfast. It was a much easier boat ride in the light without rain. After breakfast we went to another part of the river to see a Spanish castle from the 1600’s. It was really cool. It had a dungeon and kitchen area, a courtyard, and a few other rooms. Next we stopped at an area on the river that is a natural hot springs. It was so weird because in some areas it was cold but you could move 5 inches and the water would be hot. Some areas were scalding. When we got out we were all red from the water being so hot. Then we kept going on the boat to the end of the river where it feeds into the Caribbean. Right there is a town called Livingston. We went passed the town and stopped in an area that was meant to have some pools of water and nice waterfalls. We hiked a little ways and ended up passing the area we were supposed to stop at because there was no water flowing as the waterfalls. The creek was really dry, but it was still a nice hike and pretty to see. On the way back we stopped in Livingston for lunch. It is a whole different feeling than the rest of Guatemala. The majority of the population are black and they speak their own language, as well as Spanish. It was very tropical. It was interesting to see the different aspect of Guatemalan culture in this secluded area. After lunch we headed back to the shuttle and drove the 5 hours back to Antigua. I was very ready to get out of the car, but Tikal was the most incredible thing I have seen here so it was absolutely worth the drive.

Antigua weeks 4 and 5

emsussman — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 06:50:00 GMT

It’s been a little while since I have written anything so bear with me as I go through the last two weekends and the previous week as briefly as possible…

The morning after I got back from the lake I woke up with a horrible stomachache and didn’t go to the orphanage or Spanish. I slept almost the whole day. My host father gave me medicine (I imagine he is very used to seeing foreigners get sick). Tuesday morning I went to the orphanage for about 30 minutes and then went back home to sleep because, although I was feeling better, I still wasn’t 100%. I went to class that afternoon, however, and by Wednesday morning I felt almost perfect. I went to the orphanage, played with the kids, and it was a normal day. In Spanish we had a very long talk about the culture in Guatemala around pregnancy. My teacher very patiently answered our questions. She informed us that sex is completely taboo in Guatemala and that girls are taught from a young age not to get pregnant but not how one becomes pregnant. They are just expected to know. Girls are often kicked out and shunned if they become pregnant at a young age. These girls are looked down upon by their whole community. My teacher told us that she got pregnant at 19 and literally had no idea she was pregnant or how it happened. She works very hard to teach her 4 daughters to not get pregnant at a young age and to get an education and be independent. I always enjoy having cultural conversations in my classes, and it is good practice to listen to someone speaking in Spanish.

Thursday and Friday were also pretty standard days with volunteer work and class. Friday I went with Margot, Desi, Josey, and our new friend Beth to happy hour to get drinks and dinner at a place called Lavo. We ate delicious hamburgers and got drinks for $1. Then we walked to Central Park to listen to the band playing. We went out to a couple of bars and had a lot of fun!

Saturday morning I woke up early with my roommate Emily and we went to an animal shelter in a neighboring town to volunteer. Emily does construction in the mornings at the shelter and the woman in charge asked if she could help her out on Saturday because she was shorthanded. We had to take the chicken bus and then hike up a hill for about 25 minutes to get to the shelter. Then we walked dogs around the massive property. This shelter is the largest one for animals in Central America with over 300 animals. They dogs were smelly and all over the place. It was so chaotic. Walking them was a nightmare. They wandered all over the place and when we gave them treats they all jumped all over us at once. Some of the dogs were sick and had picked up so really nasty habits of eating disgusting things. Others were really aggressive and had to be walked on leashes. As much as I love dogs, I did not like being at the shelter. It was really overwhelming and although getting these dogs off the streets and into the shelter is a great alternative, they are still very under cared for.

After the shelter I went home and meant to take a nap but Desi, Margot, and Josey came over and we went to get ice cream and sit in the park for a little bit. Then I showered and got dressed because the Farchis were picking me up to see a concert that evening. Oshi and David picked me up and brought me to the concert venue, an old, beautiful church. Ari met us there, but Dani was in Boston and didn’t come. We saw an Israeli acapella group called Voca People. They were incredible! They sounded amazing and were really funny! After the concert we went to eat dinner at a small restaurant near my house in Antigua. I was exhausted by the end of the night and went to bed right after they dropped me off because they were picking me up early the next morning.

Sunday I woke up so I would be ready for the Farchis. We went to another town to plant trees and have lunch for Tu’Beshvat with the Jewish community. It was really nice but I was so tired and not feeling very well. I thought at first that I was just very tired. They dropped me back off at my house that evening. I was supposed to go meet my roommates at a sports bar to watch the Superbowl, but I was so tired that I needed to take a nap. I woke up an hour later feeling sick and awful, much like the week before. I was pretty miserable and tried to go back to sleep. I slept from 5:30 pm more or less until 12:00 pm Monday afternoon. I spoke with a few other people and realized that I probably had a stomach bacteria and that because I never finished taking the medicine it never actually left my body. So I stayed home and slept a lot again Tuesday and took it easy for the rest of the week until Friday when I finally felt better. I am finishing an entire round of antibiotics this time so that it doesn’t come back.

Friday afternoon I went with Desi and Margot and a few local friends we made through my roommate Sunny to the city to go to the Gallo Factory. It was cool to see where the beer is made, and we got free beers at the end. I actually didn’t mind one of the types called Monte Carlo. Then our friends, Marvin and Eric, took us to the Central Park in the city and to a couple of local bars to have snacks and a drink. We didn’t end up heading back to Antigua until late and were all tired and hungry when we got there. We grabbed a quick dinner at the only place we could find open at 10:30, and then they dropped me off at home.

The next morning I went with my roommates Emily and Dave to get breakfast at a delicious place called Cookies Etc. I had granola, fruit, and yogurt. It was so good! Then we picked up Noah and Dainia and met with my friend Beth to walk around Antigua and see some sites. We went to the cemetery, which is interesting because all of the people are buried above ground (so I guess they aren’t really buried?). There are some pretty extravagant grave sites that are big enough for whole families. Then we went to La Recollecion, which is ruins from a church and convent that were destroyed in a massive earthquake in the 1700’s. The chunks of brick laying everywhere were huge and really incredible to see. It is hard to take in how old it really was. I really enjoyed seeing it. Then we briefly went into La Merced, a huge Catholic church with beautiful architecture on the outside. Then Dainia, Dave, and I went up to cera de la cruz, hill of the cross. It is literally a hill with a massive cross on it. From up there you can see all of Antigua with the volcanoes in the background. It is really stunning. For dinner that night, Beth took us to a little Mediterranean food place. I had shoarma that very really good. Then we went somewhere else to get crepes for dessert.

Sunday morning Dainia and I went to shop for gifts etc. We stopped at a street market and spent a really long time there. Dainia found some jewelry that was handmade and really cool so we each bought a few things. The guy who made it was really friendly and fun to talk to (in Spanish, might I add). He told Dainia that he would lower the price if she gave him a kiss. She said no. We ended up shopping all day except for a quick lunch break. It was glorious. It was nice to have a weekend to relax and explore Antigua, but I am also very excited to start traveling again this coming weekend in Tikal!

Lago Atitlan and Chichicastenango

emsussman — Sat, 2 Feb 2013 07:55:00 GMT

Lake Atitlan and Chichicastenango

Thursday night before we left for the lake we went out for my friend Josey’s birthday. Friday morning, we were exhausted and a few of us were struggling. I spent 10 minutes looking for my camera that was already in my backpack (typical) and Dainia was pretty nauseous. It was freezing and raining and not weather that any of us was expecting. We got on the shuttle and I tried to sleep, but when the driver takes the turns at the same speed he takes the straights, it is sort of hard to stay in the same position. I was not able to sleep. Dainia got so sick that she threw up outside of the moving shuttle (luckily the windows were all shut except for her because it all went right back onto the back windows at which point John thought it was raining). In hindsight she probably wasn’t hung over because a few of us were sick in the next few days, but it either way it was pretty awful. Our driver was very nice about it and gave her some Dramamine for the rest of the ride, and one for the drive back. We stopped to grab coffee and a snack on the way to the lake and then were dropped off at Hotel Garcia in the town of Panajachel.

It was cold and gloomy when we got there, and I think everyone was pretty exhausted. We dropped our stuff off in our rooms and went to grab lunch near the water. We went towards what we assumed was the main strip of town (wrong) and looked for somewhere to eat. A man who must have gotten commission for bringing people to restaurants spotted us from a mile away and dragged us towards various establishments. It was slightly overwhelming having menus thrown in our faces, but after a quick walk around we decided on a place with a patio overlooking the water. They had 30Q meals with fish, chicken, beef, or a vegetarian option so we figured we couldn’t go wrong. As soon as we sat down, women came over trying to sell us scarves, hair wraps, bracelets, etc. You name it, they wanted to sell it, and they were very persistent. I felt very weird sitting with 7 other young adults in such a beautiful place while these women were desperate to make any sort of money. The bracelets were literally 12 cents in American money. I didn’t buy anything at first, but then 2 young girls came over to try, and so I bought some bracelets from those girls. Throughout the whole meal there was a steady stream of salespeople.

Although the view was beautiful, the food was pretty nasty. I don’t think anyone actually finished a meal. It also started raining at the end of the meal so we paid quickly and left. The view really was stunning though. At first we thought we were going to go straight back to the hotel to take a nap, but we changed our minds collectively and ventured through some little outdoor shops. Again, we were swarmed with people desperately trying to sell us anything we would buy. It was really draining. We were all a little disappointed because it seemed as though there was nothing to this little town until someone looked in a guidebook and realized we weren’t in the main area.

We walked through a few outdoor stands, and then a few of us decided we really were ready for a nap. I slept for 3 hours! I was in a room with Katie and Emily, and Emily actually slept for closer to 5 hours. Sarah came into our room and dragged me and Katie out to actually check out the main market. It had all of the typical things that are sold in the market in Antigua like bags, dolls, sweatshirts, blankets, decorative pieces, textiles, etc. Katie bought a really beautiful hand-carved wooden chess set. It was the Spanish vs. the Mayans and everything was very detailed. The woman at the shop said it took her friend a month to make it. Katie paid about $30 for it. We walked around until we saw the sun was starting to set, and then we headed towards the water. I took some amazing pictures of the sunset, but they can’t do the real thing justice. It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. How ironic that one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen is filled with the ugliest poverty struggles I have ever witnessed.

After the sunset, we sat down to get a drink and play cards. A young boy there was trying very hard to sell us little stuffed animals, key chains etc. He wouldn’t leave our table. It occurred to me that he may get in trouble for not selling enough for the day or that maybe he doesn’t get to eat if he can’t make enough money. I bought a couple of stuffed animals from him. He looked so sad and desperate the whole time. I felt awful.

We figured we should wake Emily up before dinner, so Sarah, Katie, and I left to get her. At the hotel we also picked up Eddie, another guy living at the volunteer hostel where Margot and Desi live, and two girls he was with so they came with us too. Emily was awake and waiting for us. We picked the others up from the bar and ventured back towards the main market to find a restaurant that might have better food than the one we had lunch at.

We found a brightly lit, outdoor restaurant with live music playing. It was clearly used to tourists and had a large selection of food. I ordered nachos and was very excited for them, after not eating a very big lunch. While waiting for our food (food takes a really long time at restaurants in Guatemala), various conversations came up. Kim Kardashian came up somehow and one of the girls with Eddie that we all just met said that she has a lot of respect for the Kardashians because they are very good business people. Strike one. I figured it wasn’t worth my breath explaining to her that anyone who comes from that much money can more easily start a successful business than those without resources. I also didn’t bother mentioning that there is more to life than one’s ability to start a business (although Katie did have a few, tactful things to say). Then someone brought up that during lunch so many women tried to sell us things and this same girl said how rude it was of these women to bother us. Strike two. And actually, there was no strike three because her comment was so ignorant that she forfeited it. I realized all of a sudden how embarrassing it must be for these people to stand there begging foreigners to buy their products as we eat our expensive meals. And how nobody could possibly enjoy that. And this girl called their culture rude. Who knew survival could be misconstrued as rude. Needless to say, I ate my nachos without saying much to my new little friend and was not very upset when I said goodnight to her. After dinner we went back to the hotel to relax and go to bed because even after our naps we were still tired enough for an early night.

Saturday morning we woke up to a sunny, warm day. I was very excited because it was my birthday, and the weather was beautiful! We went to a cute little restaurant for breakfast (I ate some delicious pancakes) and then went to find a boat to take us to some other cities on the lake. The lucky winner was a 21-year-old name Samuel. He agreed to take us to Santa Catarina, Santa Cruz, San Marcos, and San Pedro for 50Q each. They are all very small cities so we didn’t spend very long in any of them. Our first stop was Santa Catarina, and we were only there for 45 minutes. It is known for its indigenous population, and we got to watch women working on textiles and making blankets and scarves and various things. They were all very friendly and didn’t mind if we watched or took pictures. I bought a few cards with small textile patterns on them from some little girls in the market area. There happened to be a motorbike race of some sort going on so we had to be careful walking in the streets, which was slightly alarming in narrow roads. There was a man selling fresh coconuts, and we watched him cut them with a machete. He said he hadn’t cut himself in 6 years and even then it was because the coconut was very small. It was impressive to watch.

Our next stop was Santa Cruz. We heard that up the hill was a church. I’m not sure what we expected, but our tourist brains flicked on and we headed up. The hill was actually the side of a mountain. I don’t know how long it took us to get up, but it was completely straight up the whole time for what felt like forever. At the top, we saw the church. It was simple, white, and nothing out of the ordinary. I reassured myself that the exercise was good for me anyways, even if the church wasn’t extraordinary. And the views of the lake were outstanding with the volcanoes in the background. The water looked so crisp, and the clouds piled on top of the volcanoes really looked fake, they were so perfect. By the time we reached the bottom of the “hill” we had just enough time to go to the bathroom and head back to the boat for our next excursion.

The third stop of the day was to San Marcos so that those who wanted to swim in the lake. I didn’t bring my swimsuit so I didn’t go, which was fine anyways because the only way to get into the water was a 25 foot jump and I couldn’t be bothered to do it. Only a few of us swam while the rest of us sat on the deck and relaxed. I got an amazing phone call from Oshi, Dani, and Ari Farchi, singing a traditional happy birthday song in Spanish and wishing me a happy birthday. I was so excited to hear their voices! I miss them so much! Desi, Emily, and I got bored sitting on the dock so we went to explore a little bit. We did another unnecessary hike to nowhere and then ventured into the town area. We didn’t get very far, but Oshi told me that San Marco is the holistic town at Lake Atitlan. We saw a lot of advertisements for yoga classes.

Finally, we made it to San Pedro where we were sleeping for the night. We went to find a hostel that could accommodate 9 travelers. The first one we went to could only take 4 or 5 so we went to another that assured us it could fit us all no problem. In one room, Desi and I shared a bed (to be fair, it was a double) and Dainia slept in the other bed. Eddy and John shared a double bed upstairs (the romance jokes were endless-I like traveling with foreigners who are more open minded and good natured about all kinds of relationships), and Sarah, Katie, and Margot shared another room. Emily was first going to share a room with 2 random guys, but then she asked if she could just drag a mattress into our room. After discovering there was no other mattress, the hostel gave Emily her very own tent to sleep in. Don’t worry, we all paid full price (a whopping $6). Once that was settled, we grabbed a very late lunch and went off to explore San Pedro. We all broke off into smaller groups, which was nice for a couple of hours. Sarah and I went for a nice walk, and then she went to grab a drink by the water. I kept walking to look for Katie and Desi who went to lay out on the other end of the lake. On the way I ran into John so we walked together, found Desi and Katie, and went back to the hostel. We all met up there, watched another stunning sunset, and played some card games. Then we had a late dinner at a restaurant across the street from the hostel.

After dinner Margot and I attempted to find a place to get ice cream, without success. Then we ran into the other and everyone got mixed up again, and I ended up on another ice cream hunt with Desi. We finally settled for pre packaged ice cream cones (still delicious). We sat outside the store to eat, and we were next to a stray, very friendly black Labrador. There are so many stray dogs here, and I hate seeing them. This one came right over to us, but it didn’t beg (I think he must get quite a few scraps from the local restaurants). Desi went back into the store to buy dog food and the poor thing ate it so fast. We gave it a little more, but we walked away while he was eating so that he wouldn’t follow us. I couldn’t justify having a huge birthday celebration while people and animals were starving around me, and I was glad we didn’t do anything extravagant. I wish there was a way to help all of the stray animals, but I’m glad at least Desi bought food for that dog. We called it a night after the ice cream and went back to the hostel.

Sunday morning we woke up early to catch the shuttle to Chichicastenango, the massive market. It was a 2-hour drive, and I thought Desi and I were going to have a whole row to ourselves, but at the last minute a girl and her boyfriend climbed in. The girl couldn’t be away from her boyfriend for 2 hours (I’m not sure, but I think she probably would have melted) and begged him to move from the front of the van to sit next to her. Then she told him he was ridiculous for complaining about being squished. I wanted to throw up on her, but I didn’t. Anyways, it was pretty hot with the 4 of us back there not near a window so I was very excited when we finally pulled up to the market. It was the same as the Antigua market but on steroids. There were so many bright colors, so many people, and I brought so much money (so prepared). I was in heaven. I bought a lot of random items. Amongst them was a pair of jade earrings and a blanket for myself. Other various purchases may or may not have been for other people. I could have kept walking around but after 2 hours we stopped to grab lunch. There was a young boy sitting in the restaurant trying to sell flutes and at the end of our meal, some of the girls had a lot of leftover tortillas. Emily asked the boy if he wanted them and he eagerly took them with a massive smile on his face as if his teacher had just told him he gets to be line leader for the day. I hope that’s not the first or last time he gets extra tortillas.

After lunch we headed back to the parking lot to grab our bags from the shuttle because we were switching drivers. We were a few minutes early so we ended up waiting outside and were approached by some girls around 10 years old selling trinkets. I’m a sucker for the kids, and I bought a couple of things. So did just about everyone else. One of the girls was hilarious and came up to all of us and introduced herself and threw confetti on us. It was great to see them all laughing and having a good time together even while they worked. The shuttle back was short and sweet. I slept for half of it. We got back to Antigua around 4:00 Sunday afternoon. I took a wonderful, well-deserved shower, relaxed, and went to sleep. This was definitely one of my favorite places so far!

Antigua Week 3

emsussman — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 06:51:00 GMT

Iximche, Chocolate Museum, Lake Atitlan, and, of course, Casa Aleluya

Interesting things from this week at the orphanage:

I found out a really awful story about one of the young girls, Fernanda, from the orphanage. Her sponsor (an adorable old woman who recently moved to Guatemala and sponsors 3 kids at the orphanage, one of whom is Fernanda. Everyone at the orphanage loves the woman and calls her Abuela, which means grandma. She seems to have really done a lot for the orphanage community). Anyways, Fernanda must be about 2 ½ or 3 years old and cant speak work walk. She doesn’t crawl but scoots around on her butt. Abuela told me she sponsored Fernanda and that she had come along way so I asked her what her disabilities were. She told me that Fernanda was born very premature and was found on the sidewalk still inside of the placenta. It’s a miracle in and of itself that Fernanda is even alive. Abuela has bought a lot of things for Fernanda like good shoes and works with her as often as she can to be able to walk.

On a lighter note, I was sitting with a few girls the other day and asked them what my name was, and they all replied with “Gringa.” I told them that isn’t my actual name and they looked fascinated. I think they forgot that not every white girl is named gringa, and that is just what they call us…

I am getting to know the staff decently well, which is nice. All of the women that work there are about my age (except for the woman in charge) and are all very sweet. One of them is studying to be a nurse and works on top of that as the cook for the younger kids at Casa Aleluya. She works really hard. Every day before lunch I go into the kitchen to help set the tables and cover the plates with napkins so no bugs get into the kids’s food. I love going in to talk to Karla (the cook) and practice my Spanish with her. There is another young woman who also helps in the kitchen who has a 1-year-old son. She and her husband both grew up at the orphanage and now he teaches English so their son actually speaks more English than Spanish. It’s nice to see a success story when there are so many sad ones as well.

We finished painting the girls’ room, and the see saws this week and have started to draw on the walls in the boys’ room (by we I mean the artistically gifted, so I will just paint inside of the lines eventually).

The kids are getting to know me and the other volunteers a lot better and are starting to trust us and listen to us. Before when we asked them to share they ignored us. Now they only ignore us half of the time (progress!). They get so excited when we get there to play with them. I love it.

Iximche

Iximxhe are Mayan Ruins that are only about an hour and a half away from Antigua so I just went for a quick afternoon trip with a few other girls. On the way to the ruins we passed through some pretty awful looking towns. The houses were old and beat up and don’t look sturdy at all. There were so many stray dogs wandering around. It was really awful to see. The ruins aren’t completely excavated because there isn’t a lot of funding for it, but what’s there is very cool. We started in a museum full of artifacts. It had a mini replica of what the ruins looked like with lots of plazas and temples and housing areas. There were also various objects like a grinding stone and some vase like ceramics.

When we left the museum we walked right out into the ruins. We saw the field where they used to play a game with rings and a ball and the losing team would be sacrificed. We also saw huge stone platforms where sacrifices used to take place. There were a ton of temples and areas where houses used to stand. The Spanish burned down the town in the 1500’s, and you can still see the burn marks on the stone of what is still standing. There seemed to be a lot of communal areas and very small housing units. We walked through the ruins to a ceremonial area that is still used by the indigenous people today. There were some candles that were lit and flower petals and fruit left as sacrifices. Our guide told us that they often do these things when someone is trying to get pregnant, going to be married, is sick, etc. It was surreal to see a little piece of where the Mayan people used to live. I love that the sites are still used by people and still kept sacred so many years later and after so much persecution.

Chocolate Museum

The chocolate museum was so much fun! I went with a few other volunteers and there were a couple of other people in our tour as well. Everyone wore an apron and a chef’s hat. We started off learning about the history of chocolate. We went through the process, how it is made and how it went from a drink to food. We got to do the entire process (more or less) ourselves, starting with roasting the beans and peeling the shell off. We grinded up the beans into a paste with the same sort of stone and bowl the Mayans would have used. We made two different chocolate drinks (both delicious but a little bitter). Then we got to create our own chocolate concoctions and add fruit or nuts etc. into molds to take home with us. Not gonna lie, I did a phenomenal job (at least I think so). I made a bunch of little chocolates with orange in some and almonds in the other, and then I made a chocolate bar with cinnamon, macadamia nuts, and orange pieces. I also added milk and sugar to all of it to make milk chocolate. I was highly impressed with my skills. It was probably the most delicious experience I have yet to have in this country.

Antigua Week 2

emsussman — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 12:31:00 GMT

I am settling in very well in my second week in Antigua and finally getting comfortable with my schedule. Monday morning I started back with my volunteer work at Casa Aleluya. It was very different because all of the children 5 years and older went back to school after winter break. It is so much less chaotic now and, and I can give the kids more individual attention. There are 12 kids 3 and under, including 2 babies around 4 months old. One is so tiny she looks like she might break. Then there are seven 4 year olds, 5 girls and 2 boys. They are all adorable. The kids can be very possessive and aggressive. They hate to share toys or companions. If you pick one up and hold another’s hand, they get upset. I guess I would feel the same way if I had nothing of my own. It’s nice to get to know all of these kids one-on-one. They are all very sweet and just need a lot of love. The women who work with them were at one point orphans at Casa Aleluya. If they work there then they can get scholarships to pay for their schooling.

I learned a lot more about Casa Aleluya this week. Not all of the children are orphaned. Some were abandoned in churches because their parents can’t care for them but want them to be found and safe. Others were brought to the actual facilities by their families, begging them to take their kids. Many kids were also taken away from their families because of abusive situations. Because of these circumstances, there are family visitation days. Casa Aleluya was started by an American couple and is funded mainly by Evangelical groups in the states.

So back to my Monday; way less kids. It was very calm and we played and colored and did various activities. After my placement, I went with my roommates to tour a cathedral in Antigua. The inside is amazing with a lot of old ruins. A lot of the building was destroyed by an earthquake. It was very cool. Amanda and I had quite the photo shoot with all of the various artifacts. We went from the cathedral to Spanish class, which is actually very helpful. My teachers speak almost completely in Spanish and I feel as though I am learning a lot. I was still pretty tired from El Salvador so Monday night I just relaxed and went to bed early.

Tuesday and Wednesday morning were standard placement mornings. Wednesday catching the bus, though, was insane. I was 30 minutes late to the orphanage because it took me so long to catch a bus and the one I finally caught was beyond crowded. I had to stand the entire time, and there were literally people hanging out the door holding on to the windows. I have never seen anything like it. Tuesday morning we got 2 new volunteers, Katie and Sarah, who are both from Australian and are great!

Wednesday I switched to a different Spanish class because the one I was originally in was too basic so my time slot switched to 2-4. After class my friend Margot and I went with some people she knew to grab a snack. We went to a cute little bakery and had delicious cake. Margot and I split a really good cheesecake and an apple cake. Then we went back to Maximo Nivel (our volunteer office) to meet up with some other girls to do salsa lessons. It was a lot of fun, but it was in a really small room and was very hot. After lessons we all went to eat at Pollo Campero because everyone wanted to see what all the hype was about. Since Dani and Ari Farchi showed me what to order, I was the experienced one and told the others what to get. I was pretty proud of myself (thanks guys!). Even though it’s a fast food restaurant we had a waiter who brought us our drinks and food and gave us placemats and silverware. It had a nice fountain inside, too It was the fanciest fast food restaurant I have ever been in (rumor has it, the McDonald’s here has a beautiful garden).

After dinner we headed to Rainbow Café, a bar that has open mic on Wednesday nights. It was really crowded with all tourists and was so loud I could hardly have a conversation. It was fun to be with everyone, though, and they had very delicious banana dacharis. My roommate, Sunny, has friends from Guatemala City and they met as at the bar. They were all really fun and very nice.

Thursday morning the chicken buses were back to normal. I was able to sit the entire ride with only one other person in the seat next to me. I brought paint for the kids and they did some finger painting (only the 4 year olds- we did it before the younger ones were outside to play). One of the other volunteers, Sara, noticed in the girls’ room that there were pictures of Minnie mouse drawn on the walls but not painted, as well as a quote. She asked if we could finish it and it has turned into a great project for us. We are finishing the girls’ room, putting drawings up in the boys’ room, and sanding and painting the seesaws and benches in the courtyard area. I am really excited to help brighten the place up a little bit!

During my Spanish class on Thursday, my teacher (who is fantastic) took me and 3 other girls to see a photo exhibit that has pictures of the real Guatemala. Antigua is very sheltered from the dangers of the rest of the country. The exhibit shows a lot of photos from the civil war in the 1980’s of families searching for the remains of loved ones or holding onto a piece of a loved one’s bloody clothing. There were also several photos of crime scenes from gang related incidents. It was very interesting and insightful. I learned a lot about the hardships that many Guatemalans suffer through on a daily basis.

Friday was another standard day in the orphanage and Spanish class. That night we went out to celebrate because it was my roommate Jason’s last night in Antigua. Saturday morning I woke up and went to the Earth lodge with my roommates Dave, Noah, Dainia, John, Amanda, and Emily and with my friends Desi, Margot, Sarah, Katie, and Nacim. The Earth Lodge is about 20 minutes outside of Antigua in the mountains. It is an avocado farm/hostel/hippie lodge. We went to relax for the day and to a little bit of hiking. We got there and had to hike down a steep hill to the actual lodge. It has a stunning view overlooking the volcanoes. We had a delicious lunch with a lot of amazing guacamole! I got a bean and cheese quesadilla as well to go with my guac. We spent a lot of time relaxing in hammocks and soaking up sun. Then we went for a little hike. We had to trek back up the massive hill. I am quite out of shape. It was completely worth it though to see the views. On our way to find the lookout point, Noah asked 2 young indigenous kids where we needed to go and they asked their parents if they could take us so our tour guides were an 8 year old girl and 6 year old boy. They were adorable! The little boy waited for us to go down a slippery hill and stuck his hand out to help us down (I was terrified I would pull him down with me, but luckily I didn’t slip). They wanted to us to take some pictures of them with our camera so I got some cute shots of them! They were very sweet and must lead travelers to this hike pretty often. On the way we also ran into some of their friends from school and they also were very insistent on being in some photos (they say “mi foto!).

After our hike and a little bit more relaxation, my roommates left to go back to Antigua and I stayed with the other girls for the night. For dinner we had a fresh, vegetarian meal of vegetables, mac n cheese with cauliflower and broccoli, zucchini pancakes, and salad. For desert we had avocado bread. It was such a good, fresh meal! I headed back to our dorm pretty soon after dinner to go to sleep early. The next morning we got up at had granola, fresh fruit, and yogurt for breakfast. After some more time in the hammocks, we headed back up the dreaded hill to wait to be picked up and head back to Antigua.

Sunday afternoon I met up with Katie and Sarah and they each got a hair wrap at Central Park (I got one already). Then we met up at the artisan market with Desi and Margot, and I got a little homemade pouch to keep my money in. Katie, Sarah, and I went back to Central Park to pick up Katie’s headphones that she left with a woman so that she could do a hair wrap on the cord of the headphones as a present for her brother (it turned out really nicely). Then we got some gelato and sat at a coffee shop for a little bit. I headed home from dinner and then went with Dave, Noah, and Emily to a little wine and cigar shop. The room looks like one massive wine cellar and it has one table in the middle that everyone sits at. The first glass of wine is 35 Quetzales, the second 30, etc. It is a really cute, little shop! I had a really nice, relaxing weekend, and I am ready to go traveling again for this coming weekend!

El Tunco, El Salvador

emsussman — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 14:42:00 GMT

I can now check another country off of my list of places to go. I spent the last weekend in El Tunco, El Salvador, and it was incredible! I went with 2 of my roommates, Dainia and Jason, and my friends Desi and Isaac. We left Antigua Friday morning around 8:00 on a little shuttle. I slept most of the first part of the drive until we hit the border between Guatemala and El Salvador. We had to get out of the shuttle and get our passports checked, but we didn’t get a stamp for El Salvador. I was very upset. After about 2 more hours we finally arrived in El Tunco. The shuttle driver dropped us off in town and we got picked up by Quincho who is my host father’s son. Quincho takes experienced surfers out to find good waves and also takes amazing surfing pictures, and he generously gave up his weekend to show us around and teach us to surf. He brought us to our hostel, which was about a 5-minute walk to the beach.

After we put our stuff in our room we headed down to check out the water. El Salvador is ridiculously hot and I don’t think I was anywhere air-conditioned the entire weekend. We were very ready to get in the water. The beach has black sand and lots of rocks. The water there is anything but calm, although Quincho insisted there were no big waves. The ocean is also insanely warm there, which is nice except for that it is so hot in El Tunco that I wish the water would have been just a little bit cooler. Either way it was amazing. After about half an hour we wandered over to the little town area to get smoothies made with fresh fruit. They were delicious. We checked out a few of the shops and Desi and I also had some French fries since we didn’t have time to eat lunch earlier.

We headed back to the hostel to rinse off and change for dinner. Quincho drove us back into town and took us to a little burrito restaurant. I had a beef burrito with rice and veggies and beans. It was only $5 and was one of the best burritos I have ever had. After dinner Quincho took us to a local bar on the beach. We sat outside and looked out at the ocean crashing against the rocks. It was so beautiful and peaceful. It was a nice, calm night. We were all tired from going out the night before so we left pretty early to go back to the hostel and get some sleep.

The next morning we woke up early to be ready at 9:00 AM for Quincho to take us surfing. We walked down the road to grab breakfast (beans, tortillas, eggs for $2). After waiting for him for about an hour (and taking a delightful snooze in a hammock) we decided to head to the beach on our own (Quincho mentioned he was going out that night and we figured he may have had a slight hangover). We swam on our own for a while until Quincho found us. We walked back to the hostel with him to grab surfboards to begin our adventure! Jason went to try to catch some waves on his own because he had already surfed a few times but the rest of us were beginners.

After a brief lesson on the sand, we headed out to the ocean. Quincho started off by having us lay on the boards and riding the waves in on our stomachs. Great, no problem. However, if you thought fighting waves to get out farther in the ocean was difficult on your own, try doing it with a massive board. Not as easy or glamorous as it looks. I was clever enough to stand behind Desi and her board as a massive wave came at us and the water slammed it into my thigh, leaving of the best bruises I have ever had. It was more than painful. My whole upper leg was throbbing down into my bone and it hurt so badly. After that I was sort of over it. I rode another wave in on my belly and then attempted to stand up. It didn’t work. Desi and I tried one more time to stand up on a wave that was way too big for us and got thrashed around in the water. We decided we had had enough surfing and went to grab water while Dainia and Isaac continued to try. I have the upmost respect for surfers and have decided to let it be someone else’s hobby.

Exhausted and sun burnt, we all went back to the hostel to get ready for our hike to the waterfall. We grabbed lunch at a restaurant next to the hostel (I had nachos, quite delicious) and left for our trek. It was about a 30-minute drive into the mountains where we went from sea level to an altitude of about 1600 feet. The hike there was the easy part. It was almost all down hill. The only bad part was that it was extremely hot. Luckily, we brought plenty of water and the gorgeous scenery made up for it. It wasn’t a very long hike to the waterfalls and when we got there we did about a 15-foot jump into the water. The water was cool and felt great after our hot hike! Isaac, Jason, and Dainia did a few higher jumps into other falls but Desi and I opted to be the photographers. Fifteen feet was enough for me. The waterfall was small and beautiful and so much fun. We spent a good amount of time hanging out in the water and enjoying the views around us. Our hike back should have been a little bit refreshing but since it was all up hill I dried off quickly and was really hot. It went pretty quickly but it was difficult, nonetheless. I blame the altitude and not that fact that I haven’t worked out in 2 months. The drive back to our hostel was nice as we watched the sunset after an exhausting, fun day.

Back at the hostel we rinsed off (notice, there were no real showers taken. We had soap but it was almost useless against the sand and I didn’t wash my hair at all) and got ready for dinner. We went to another great restaurant where I got pasta with garlic sauce (very ethnic, I know). Then we headed back to the bar on the beach for a drink. I was so exhausted from the day that all I wanted to do was sleep. Luckily, Jason felt the same way (the poor guy does not have skin that is meant for the sun) and we asked Quincho to drive us back to the hostel early. I fell asleep right away.

Sunday morning we were supposed to surf again but none of us were up for it so we walked to town to have breakfast and book our shuttle back to Antigua. We packed up our things, went for a last swim on the beach and grabbed lunch before we had to leave. The shuttle back was long and tedious, and I couldn’t sleep because of the curvy road and excessive travel speed. I could not wait to be back in Antigua. We stopped at a gas station on the way and someone on the shuttle asked if the driver would unlock the door so we could grab a snack and the driver said no and left the station without even filling up. He was in a huge rush to get home, apparently. We got back to our house around 8:30 PM and my host mom Patsy was so nice and had dinner waiting for us. It was Isaac’s last night in Antigua so we went out for a quick drink before we all decided we were way too exhausted to be out.

While we were gone, 4 new people moved into my house. I have a new roommate named Emily who lives in my actual room with me, Amanda, and Dainia. She is very sweet and from New Jersey. We also got two new boys from Canada, John and Noah (Dustin left Sunday morning). We have one other girl named Sunny in a private room downstairs. Emily and Noah are volunteering with construction, John is taking a lot of Spanish classes, and Sunny is getting certified to teach English in foreign countries. Our house is so full and so fun! There are 9 of us, plus our family of 4!

Starting volunteer placement and Spanish classes

emsussman — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 14:07:00 GMT

Life lessons learned so far:

Water temperature is directly related to water pressure; the more pressure, the warmer the water (I think. It doesn’t actually get hot).

Guatemalans can pack more people onto a school bus than any other country in the world.

Running water in houses typically runs out by 8:00 PM

I started my orientation at 8:00 AM Monday, January 7. My roommate Dainia was kind enough to wake up early to walk me to the volunteer office, Maximo Nivel, so I wouldn’t have to go alone my first time. Orientation was short and to the point, which was very nice. We found out our volunteer placements. I am working at an orphanage called Casa Aleluya for children who were abandoned by their parents. The orphanage as 500 children, but I am only working with the 0-6 year olds. Then we took a Spanish placement test that I didn’t bother finishing because I didn’t understand most of it. After the test we took a quick walking tour of Antigua. The city is on a grid, which is very convenient for the directionally challenged. Volcan Agua is directly south of Antigua, making a fantastic landmark (also beautiful to look at). We walked passed the bus terminal, the post office, along some main streets, the central park area, a supermarket and safe ATMs to use. It was a nice opportunity to talk to other new volunteers and talk about various trips we wanted to take on weekends.

After the walking tour I signed up for 4 weeks of Spanish classes and walked home for lunch. Then I had to be back at Maximo Nivel by 1:30 to be taken to Casa Aleluya to meet the people in charge and learn how to get there. One of the Maximo Nivel employees, Victor, walked us to the bus terminal and explained how the bus system works. Before I explain the system, let me explain the buses. They are old U.S. school buses called chicken buses that were passed on to Mexico before ending up in Guatemala. They are painted bright, bold colors so that they don’t look so worn down.

The first step in our journey is to find a bus that says “Guate” on it. Someone will generally be standing outside yelling “Guate, Guate” in case you are confused. Then I ask the bus helper (the one yelling “Guate,” if they are stopping at San Lucas. If he says yes, enter the bus. Step two is to attempt to find a seat towards the front of the bus. You also want to try to get a seat that is empty or with only 1 person in it because they will fill the bus with 3 per seat and it is much more comfortable to be fully in a seat than half hanging off. Step 3 is to hold on tightly so you don’t fall out of the seat or slam into the person next to you going around the curves on the road. Remember, there are no speed limits. After the first stop, you keep an eye out for a big supermarket with a huge overpass. That’s San Lucas. Get off there, and go over the big bridge. On the other side of the road, find another bus that is heading toward Chimantenango. Ask this bus helper if they will stop at Casa Aleluya (not an actual stop but if it’s worth their while they stop). If he says no, repeat process until a bus says yes. Casa Aleluya is maybe a 5-minute drive from this stop, and by then the bus is packed but we aren’t allowed to stand. Instead of waiting at the front we have to pass through all of the over stuffed seats to the back so we can sit down, only to stand back up. After a nice, relaxing, smooth ride, there we are!

This first afternoon that we went (my placement is actually from 8-12 in the morning but all of the new volunteers went in the afternoon together) we went into the area for the younger children to meet the staff. Within 2 minutes curious kids had poked their heads out to say hello and immediately ran into our arms to be held. It was incredible. A sweet little girl named Sandy jumped into my arms and hugged me so hard. I honestly didn’t want to have to let go. After Victor introduced us he took off to take some other volunteers to their orphanage and left us with a volunteer who had been there before and could teach us how to use the chicken buses and get back to Antigua.

I must have held the same little girl for 30 minutes. We brought markers and paper for the kids to use. The facility is very run down. There are a few broken, mini play places, a few wooden benches a couple of wooden tables, and a wooden sea saw. Everything is communal so the kids have no ownership over anything except maybe their toothbrush and bed. There is one huge closet for all of the girls to share all of the clothes and the same for the boys. The kids are all so cute and loving, friendly, and happy. Even with all they don’t have, they’ve made it work. They are all brothers and sisters. They look out for one another and play together. Everyone wants a hug, to be held, to be recognized as an individual. It broke my heart that they knew right away to mime everything they said because most of us wouldn’t understand what they were saying. They are so young and shouldn’t have to accommodate others. I actually understood a decent amount and so far can communicate fairly well, which is relieving. I knew how to ask if Carmen, one of the women who works there permanently as the cook, if she needed help passing out snack. They had cinnamon bread sticks and each child must have taken 20. They don’t go without food, from what I can tell, which is nice because that is the only thing they seem to have plenty of. They are so used to having people walk in and out of their lives that they were so comfortable with us after 30 seconds. It’s amazing and awful all at the same time.

The next morning was my first full shift at the orphanage. I had to leave by 7:15 to get to Casa Aleluya by 8:00 so Desi, another girl in my placement, met at my house and she, my roommate Amanda, and I all caught the bus together. Amanda takes the same route as us but just stays on for longer. When we first got there, most of the kids were still in their rooms. All of the girls sleep in one room with bunk beds with one woman, Carmella, who they call Mommy Carmella. I haven’t been in the boy’s room, but I imagine it is set up the same way. The kids all come outside dressed and ready to play. Everyone wants a hug and to be held. I spent a lot of the morning with a 4-year-old girl named Misa. We walked around a lot and other kids would come with us for a little while and then get interested in something else. Misa wanted to be held most of the time so I sat with her in my lap or we went on the slides or swings. The kids literally played outside for 4 hours with no structure. They seem to love it, but they aren’t learning anything to help their futures. Apparently the older kids go to school but I don’t understand how the system works because I see them outside a lot of the morning and some of the kids I’m with are 7 and 8 years old.

A couple of hours into the morning a few girls came over to me and tried to tell me in rapid Spanish that one of them had been tripped by a boy and scraped her toe. When I finally understood what they were saying I picked her up and took her to clean it out. They don’t have soap in the bathroom so I wasn’t sure what to do, but the girls when to get Irina, the woman in charge of the younger kids, and she brought the girl, Sandra, to clean it up. As she was putting antiseptic on Sandra’s cut I noticed her finger and toenails all looks like they are disintegrating. Irina explained to me that they can’t get the medicine for it in Guatemala and that Sandra’s mom had never cleaned them at home. I didn’t understand whether it was a fungus or a disease causing her nails to crumble, but it looks awful for the poor girl. If anyone knows more about a medicine that could help her and how I could get it, please let me know!

When Sandra was all cleaned up, I went outside and sat with some of the girls and taught them how to make cootie catchers out of paper. We didn’t have anything to write with so we just folded them. These kids don’t even have crayons or pencils or paper. Desi wanted to read with one of the boys and we asked if they had any books, but they didn’t. These kids never get to read stories. Desi and I left pretty soon after that because the kids went to eat lunch and we were supposed to leave in 15 minutes anyways.

That afternoon I went to my first Spanish lesson. I originally started in the most basic level but I ended up moving up to a faster paced class because I already know the alphabet etc. My teacher is an adorable Guatemalan woman named Odilia. She is so nice and very patient. She speaks minimal English so the class is almost completely in Spanish. I think it will be very helpful! So far I am signed up for 4 weeks of classes. My roommates Dave, Dainia, and Jason all finish class at the same time as me so we all walked back together. That night we met up with a ton of other volunteers from our program at a club called Mono Loco (crazy monkey). It was ladies night and drinks are 4Q (50 cents in the U.S.). I saw some girls from my orientation, Kate, Hannah, and Mae, which was really nice! We spent some time at that club and then went to another club called Ricky’s. It wasn’t very crowded and apparently doesn’t usually get busy until around 1am. I was ready to go back home and Amanda wasn’t feeling very well so we took a cab with Jason and left around 1. I was so tired and had to get up at 6:45 the next morning so I crashed when we got back.

This morning I woke up completely exhausted but ready for the orphanage. Desi and I got there very easily, already getting used to the bus system. The kids were excited to see us, and we had immediate playmates. I spent most of the morning with the same few girls walking around and playing. At the end of the morning the girls took me to look into the baby room, which I had yet to see. There was a little baby boy that they pointed out laying in his crib crying. The room is mass chaos with too many kids under 3 and not enough help. I went to pick the poor kid up at literally as soon as I held him he stopped crying. I felt awful for him. After a few minutes I realized that he has a bald spot on the back of his head from laying in his crib all day long. It made me feel so sick. His name is Freddy, and he is only 4 months old. I am going to spend time everyday holding him so that he can have more time out of his crib. This afternoon, Desi and I want to the supermarket to buy toys to bring to the orphanage. I also bought some books and candy. I’m so excited to be able to give them to the kids!

Coming to Antigua

emsussman — Tue, 8 Jan 2013 14:57:00 GMT

Sunday, January 6, I woke up, showered, and did some last minute packing. After a quick breakfast, David, Oshi, Dani, Ari, and I piled into the car for the ride to Antigua. They took me to the bank so I could withdraw some cash (1,000Q=$125), and then we stopped at a bakery so that I could pick up a gift for my host family in Antigua. Oshi helped me pick out some nice mugs and cookies to bring to them and then helped arrange them to make sure they looked nice wrapped together. Then we were off to Antigua! It was only about a 45 minute drive or so, and it flew by. You know you’ve reached Antigua once the roads turn into cobblestone. As you drive in from the city the scenery is surreal. There are tons of adobe style buildings painted yellow and red sitting in a valley surrounded by volcanoes. I have never seen anything like it, and it is breathtaking. Because it was Sunday, the streets were filled with pedestrians, motorcyclists, and cars. The streets are so small that by the time cars park on both sides, there is only room for cars to drive one way. We stopped off first at the Maximo Nivel office to see how much time we had before I needed to be dropped off. They told us I could come as late as 6:00 PM which was nice because we originally thought it was by 3:00 PM. Then we went to pick up a friend of the Farchi’s who has a beautiful house in Antigua. The best part is the view from the terrace that over looks Volcan de Agua (Agua Volcano). It’s breathtaking. After a brief tour of the home we went to a nice Italian restaurant. By that point I was so nervous I could hardly eat. It was so nice to have the Farchis with me to reassure me that I was going to be okay and that if I ever needed anything they were only a phone call away. I don’t know what I would have done without them. After lunch we walked around for a bit and went into an ice cream shop where it is all homemade and has crazy flavors like rice and carrot. I didn’t have any but I definitely plan on going back to try some. Oshi stopped at a bakery and bought me a few cookies and a jar of the guava jelly that I really like (and I’m so sad because I left it in their car!). They brought me back to the volunteer office where I was given a folder with a map of the city, the address of my home stay, and instructions to be back at 8:00 AM the next morning for orientation.

We arrived at my new house for the next 12 weeks, and everything happened so quickly that I didn’t have time to be nervous. We brought my stuff inside, I said goodbye to the Farchis (and I miss them terribly), and the next thing I knew we were getting ready to go check out the market. I have 5 housemates, 2 of which share a room with me. Their names are Amanda and Dainia, and they are both from Australia. I love them! They are so much fun! Amanda has already been in Antigua for a few weeks and D got here 2 days before me. The boys in the house are Devin, Dave, and Jason. Devin is from LA, Dave is from England, and Jason is from Maryland. They are all so nice and so fun too! They were all so welcoming and helped me get acclimated quickly. My actual host family is amazing too! They consist of Juaquin, my host father, Patsy, my host mother, Andrea (who I have yet to meet) who is 18, and Samuel who is 8. They are also very nice and make me feel very comfortable in their home. We have free wifi (one of the only home stays who does), and the food so far is delicious. They are easy to talk to and very friendly! They are originally from El Salvador but came to Guatemala for a better life.

A few minutes after I got there, we all left to go to the market. On the way we stopped at a bar to meet up with some other people who were all also very friendly. From there we added a few others to our group, Lizzie, Chelsea, and Isaac, and walked to the market. We only stayed for a little while because it was getting dark and things were closing, but it was really neat to at least get a glimpse of it. After the market we went home and had dinner. They served papoosas which were amazing. I had already tried them at the water park with Orly so I was glad to have them again. They are corn tortillas with filling inside, and these ones had beans and cheese (I think). We finished dinner and went back out to meet some others for the night. We stopped at a coffee shop where I had hot chocolate and then moved on to meet more volunteers at a bar. That bar closed early because it was Sunday so we moved on to another one that was very nice! It had a very relaxed environment. Around 1:00 AM ended up back at the house, and I was exhausted! When I got home I had several messages from the Farchis checking in on me, which made me feel so at ease! I was so happy to have been able to create a relationship with such a great family. I had such an incredible first day in Antigua and I could not have asked for a better first impression!

Guatemala City Round 2

emsussman — Tue, 8 Jan 2013 13:54:00 GMT

Between the beach and beginning my volunteer I had 5 nights in Guatemala City with the Farchis. We had a lot of time to relax, watch movies, sleep, and read. It was a lot like the beach minus the beach part. Wednesday we went to lunch and then dropped Cara off at the airport. Thursday we took Dani to the doctor, and he told her she could walk without the boot on her foot (woohoo!). Friday we repeated our lounging around and then took Dani to physical therapy. After, Oshi, Dani and I sat at a coffee shop and had drinks. I got a Chai tea frappe, which was very delicious! Then we went with the whole family to Shabbat services and dinner. They showed me all around the entire Jewish Community Center, and it was so cool to see where Dani and Ari have grown up and have had so many great memories. Ofe, another camper from this summer, and her family were also there so I finally got to see her (her family took a trip to Rio Dulce the day after I arrived in Guatemala). We had a nice service with hardly any people; even the rabbi wasn’t there because he was in the U.S. for his son’s wedding. Dinner was also really good! Saturday we went to see The Life of Pi at a really nice movie theater with huge, comfortable chairs (in English with Spanish subtitles). It was nice to have some good, quality time with my new Guatemalan family before I left for Antigua.

Playa Likin

emsussman — Sun, 6 Jan 2013 05:39:00 GMT

December 26 we packed up our stuff and headed to Playa Likin (playa means beach). Dani and Ari assured us that it was nothing special, but they’re very wrong. Their beach house is very spacious with enough beds to fit about 15 people comfortably. Ari, Dani, Cara and I shared a room again, and the other rooms were occupied by Oshi’s mom, sister, brother-in-law, nephews and niece. The Farchis recently redid their backyard, and it is stunning. There is a beautiful pool with a waterfall and a tanning area. Next to the pool is a hut-like canopy. It is complete with tropical plants, hammocks, and plenty of lounging areas. There is a set of stairs that go down to their pier where they keep a boat and a wave runner. The houses are set up on a canal so in order to get to the actual beach from their house you have to go by water. Ari took Cara and me on the wave runner and David drove Dani in the boat. They took us all around the water to show us the beach area. The beaches there are all black sand because of the volcanoes. It’s very cool!

Our first complete day at the beach house David took us to learn how to water ski. It was the perfect day to go because not many people were at the beach yet so there were almost no boats out. It took me a lot of tries but I finally stood up, and I loved it. After Cara and I spent a couple of hours inhaling salt water and falling on our faces, Ari showed us what it looks like to actually water ski. We met Ari’s friend Julianna and her very nice family. Julianna took me for a ride on her wave runner (it’s amazing to me that 14 year olds are so efficient driving on the water). Then Julianna’s dad took us on his boat to watch her wakeboard. She was incredible! She would hold on with one hand like it was nothing and do jumps. She made it look very easy. The afternoon flew by and before I knew it we were heading back to the house for lunch (these people eat lunch around 3:00 PM and a light dinner around 7:30).

That evening we went back out on the boat to go tubing. I was not very good at holding on and managed to bruise my entire body from hitting the water at all angles (totally worth it). By the end my arms were so tired because of the water skiing earlier and from holding on for dear life. I think I spent just as much time in the water as on the tube. Ari managed to weasel her way into the center between me and Cara so she hardly fell off (possibly not at all? I can’t remember). Cara and I were not so lucky. And in our defense, we are as seasoned as Ari who has grown up at the beach (terrible excuse). Needless to say, I was exhausted at the end of the night! I went to bed early because Cara and I were getting up early to hike Pacaya, one of Guatemala’s active volcanoes.

We woke up at 6:30 AM, an hour I hadn’t seen since my arrival in Guatemala. Cara and I went with Julie and Moty, Ari and Dani’s aunt and uncle. The entire upper half of my body ached from the previous day’s activities and my whole body was covered in sunburns. I was looking forward to evening out the pain with a nice leg workout up the volcano. We drove about an hour and a half and at the bottom of the volcano we found a guide to lead us. We bought walking sticks from young children for 5 quetzales each. That’s less than one American dollar. This was the first time I saw the impoverished side of Guatemala. I felt terrible that these kids weren’t out playing and, instead, had to work while I enjoyed the luxury of their country’s terrain, but I was glad we could help them out. There were also men with horses asking us if we wanted a taxi up. We were all very determined to hike the whole way and told them no, gracias. Clearly, we were not the first gringos to attempt the constant uphill climb because they followed us with their horses up the hill. Not 10 minutes in to our trek we all begged for horses. I’d like to think I decided not to hike so that I could truly enjoy the beauty of the volcano and its surroundings. We stopped a couple of times at breathtaking look out points to take pictures and admire the views. We spoke to the horse owners, and one of them said that in his lifetime Pacaya had erupted 5 times! When we reached the farthest point that the horses could go, there was a stand selling bracelets with bits of volcanic rock put into them. The proceeds went to help the poor communities surrounding the volcano. Cara and I each bought a bracelet, which came with intricate, handmade cloth bags. We walked the last few hundred yards up the volcano as high as we could go. Nobody was allowed to go to the crater that day because it was too hot. I felt like we were on the moon because there was seemingly no sign of life and mounds of volcanic rock everywhere. Our guide brought marshmallows that we roasted from the heat of some rocks. It was so cool! Then we hiked up a little peak and he took some pictures for us. We ran into a lot of Americans and spoke with a kid on a stop for Semester at Sea. Naturally, he was Jewish, and Julie wanted Cara to get his number. The kid heard us talking about it which was very amusing (not for Cara).

Our descent down the volcano went relatively smoothly, except for the pounds of sand that accumulated in our shoes and the amount of times we all slipped. When we were almost all the way down we turned around to see a huge puff of smoke come out of the volcano. It was so cool! Our guide said it would have been even better if we had been up at the top and even though he is constantly at Pacaya it’s not something he sees all of the time! He was so excited about the volcano and very knowledgeable which made it all the more fun and interesting. As we drove to drop our guide off where we picked him up we stopped to give our sticks back to the kids so that they could resell them. I passed out on the car ride home! We got back to the house by 1:00 ish and were prepared for a rough day of reading and lounging by the pool.

We spent the next few days swimming, tubing, reading, relaxing and eating. Our favorite treat was chocolate covered bananas (I think I ate at least 1 a day, if not more). The lifestyle never got old, and I would go back in a heartbeat. I couldn’t believe I was so lucky as to be in such a stunning place with such incredible people. We spent a lot of time playing with Dani and Ari’s adorable cousins. They spent so much time in the pool and were so fun to splash with and play with! We spent one afternoon on the beach and the kids loved to be in the ocean and see all of the boats pass by. The black sand made my skin so soft and smooth. We only swam in the canal area because the waves in the actual ocean have a lot of rip tides and strong currents and isn’t very safe. There was an old house on the beach that was broken down from the waves and a lot of driftwood ended up on the shore. We also watched the sunset a couple of times on the beach, which was gorgeous! The sky was pink and orange and the sun fell so quickly!

Our last night at the beach was New Year’s Eve. We spent the day soaking up sun and watching another sunset. Cara and I decided we wanted to wade in the ocean (there were a lot of people there) and we finally understood the waves. They hit you and move back out so quickly that it’s hard to stand up! Both of us got black sand all in our bathing suits and all over our faces and hair. When Ari and Dani told us we would ruin our suits they weren’t kidding. David maneuvered through the waves like a pro, making Cara and me look even more ridiculous. It was a good experience.

That night we went to a neighboring friend’s beach house to celebrate New Year’s Eve with mainly the same families that were in Irtra. We had a nice dinner and it was very calm and low key, except for the fireworks. Guatemalans love their fireworks on New Year’s Eve. At the house we were at, we must have set off all sorts of fireworks for at least an hour before midnight. They have all kinds of sparklers and fireworks that swirl around. They also have paper parachutes that they light and put in the sky that look beautiful. At midnight everybody sets off fireworks. The sky is covered with them for at least 30 minutes, and they all look like professional shows even though they come from people’s yards. I’ve never seen so many fireworks at once in my life! The sky is foggy from all of them. The only one I didn’t like were the ones that were set off on the ground and could fly in any direction. I tried to stand far away from those, especially when anyone under 14 was lighting them. Seeing the fireworks and spending time with all of these kind people was a great way to bring in the new year and a fabulous end to our vacation at the beach.

Irtra!!!

emsussman — Sat, 5 Jan 2013 15:49:00 GMT

Sunday morning we left for the infamous Irtra, the hot spot for Guatemalan Jews for Christmas. It is a humungous series of hotels and restaurants with two swimming pools, a small bowling alley, mini golf, a spa, raquetball courts, and massive green fields and palm trees everywhere. Before we started the 3 hour drive, though, we stopped off at the Farchi’s close friends’ café. Their daughter and son also went to camp last summer so I met them before. Not only does this family own a café, but they own the entire mall it is in and a few others just like it. The café had fantastic pastries and cookies covered in frosting with a caramel-like cream filling. I ordered a traditional Guatemalan breakfast with beans, eggs, cheese, and green sauce. It was delicious! After breakfast we got on the road (but not before stopping 5 minutes after we left for an impromptu bathroom break).

Let me tell you a little something about driving in Guatemala. There are no rules. Everybody pays for their driver’s license rather than taking the test, and kids start driving illegally as early as 11 or 12. David drove our car at quite a speed through the highway battling with other drivers to pass trucks. It was quite the experience. We drove past at least 4 volcanoes and could see the craters of some. Oshi pointed them out as we drove, explaining which were active and when various eruptions occurred. We also passed acres and acres of sugar cane. I haven’t gotten to try it yet, but I am very excited to! When we finally got to Irtra it was very crowded! We had to wait in the parking like for about 30 minutes while David and Oshi checked us in.

We walked into the hotel and straight to the large suite on the end of the hallway. Oshi’s mom, sister, brother in law and nephews and niece shared one suite and on the opposite end of the hall Oshi, David, Ari, Dani, Cara and I shared another. There were two bedrooms and a living room. Dani, Ari, Cara and I settled into our room and Oshi came in to tell us to go explore and that she would see us for dinner at 7:30 and again at 9:30 the next morning to leave for the water park. The 4 of us headed to sit by the pool and grab something to eat. We spent a few minutes in the water, but it was freezing so we walked around and Dani showed us Irtra. Poor Dani had to use a wheelchair because it was way to big with too many hills for her to use crutches, but she was a great sport.

After our walk we went back to the pool area where what seemed like the entire Jewish community was sitting (luckily I had already met most of them at Shabbat dinner). It was Dani’s birthday, but she insisted we not make a big deal out of it, even though it was her 16^th! But we all sang happy birthday and had some really good cake.

Cara and I decided that we had to try out the water slide before dinner, even though the pool was freezing. Even though the slide was presumably for kids, I was pretty impressed so we figured once more wouldn’t hurt. The couple in front of us in line overheard us talking and asked if we were American. We talked to them for the next few minutes and learned they were from the east coast visiting for a wedding. I told them we had a friend from camp also in Guatemala for a wedding, but that I had no idea where. Cara told them her name at the off chance it was the same wedding. It turns out, our friend Aly is their niece. Only Jews could randomly run into each other in a foreign country. They brought us to Aly and we couldn’t believe we were all there! She told us our room number so later that night we could come by her room and play cards with her and her cousins.

After our run in with Aly, we went back to the room to shower and change for dinner. Oshi told me there was a girl about my age at Irtra with her parents and bored. I was excited to have some company my own age! We were going to have dinner with her and she would be around for the next couple of days. Dani and Ari wanted to have dinner with their friends and between the conversations in Spanish and English, Cara and I got confused and went with the girls to a Thai restaurant rather than the Mexican one with their parents. We misunderstood that Orly, the girl my age, would be at the Thai restaurant when she was actually at the Mexican. Once we got to the Thai restaurant, the girls and their friends decided they would rather have Mexican (the joys of traveling with teenagers). It worked in our favor, though, because we got to eat with Orly. She is amazing and I had a great time with her! She is a junior at Columbia University and was home for winter break. Her mother was born in the U.S.A. but grew up in Guatemala and her Dad is Israeli. They were all so nice, and Orly’s mom was quick to assure me that if I ever needed anything in Guatemala I shouldn’t hesitate to call.

True to our word, after dinner Cara and I went to Aly’s room to play cards. Her cousins and brother were fabulous, and we had so much fun meeting them! We played a game called liar’s poker, which l had never played but really enjoyed. We said goodnight to Aly and her family and figured out that we were all going to be at the water park the next day so we would try to find them.

We spent Christmas Eve at the water park, which is about a 30 second train ride from the hotels. I’m pretty sure we spent more time waiting for the crowded train than actually riding it. The water park had a ton of slides, a small wave pool, and a really nice lazy river. Cara and I rode a fiew slides and went around in the lazy river until we ran into Orly and her parents. We hung out in the wave pool for a while and then David brought us to the back of the park where we realized we were missing out on 75% of the fun. One slide, referred to as the toilet bowl, spits you out into a big basin where you swirl until dropping into the rest of the slide. Another gains momentum until you go up a ramp and then down again. The craziest one we went on, though, David dragged us on. He and Orly’s father had already been a few times and decided we couldn’t miss out on all the fun.

Let me explain this slide to you. At first glance, one might think it’s just your average closed in slide with a steep drop. Wrong. The slide, in fact, begins as a free fall. You climb 5 million stairs to the top. Once there you can really see the terror that will unfold. Two slides run at the same time. One person stands in each capsule where bystanders (like David) watch to see your face as you realize you are standing on nothing. A kind voice counts down 3-2-1 and then the floor slides out from under you. Your eyes bulge out of your head and your stomach falls 10 times faster than the rest of your body. You can only scream for so long because your body goes into shock. After about 7 seconds you hit the slide and swoop around until, finally, you can breath fresh air and sufficiently pick your wedgy. It was quite the experience. Once was plenty.

Cara and Orly and I did one more relatively calm slide and decided we had had enough slide excitement for the day. We did a few laps around the lazy river and headed back to the hotel. The rest of the evening was very relaxed. The park itself closed by 4:00 because of Christmas Eve. In Guatemala, Christmas Eve is a bigger deal than Christmas day so everything closes early. On Christmas day, though, the restaurants, parks, etc. were all open until regular hours. Anyways, after a nice dinner, Dani, Ari, Daniel, Tami, (2 of Dani’s friends) Orly, Cara, and I went back to our hotel room to play cards. It was a lot of fun and we tried to play in Spanish so that I could practice.

On Christmas day we woke up and had breakfast by the pool before boarding the train to the amusement park. We were greeted by clowns asking to take pictures with us, much like Disneyland. The park was relatively not crowded because of Christmas but it was definitely not just the Jews there. We got through the rides pretty quickly and hardly had to wait in lines.

Sidenote: Irtra is used as a government incentive to work and pay taxes so employees are all given large discounts at the park. Some of the rooms can be purchased for as little as $10 per night with these incentives and entrance fees to the parks are waived. It is a great way to reward Guatemalan employees and allow anyone, regardless of income bracket, the opportunity to have fun and relax with their family and friends.

We went on all of the typical park rides and the whole time we could see the volcano in the distance. It was beautiful! We ended the park with a magic show and lunch at an Italian restaurant. Then we tried a few typical Guatemalan foods like corn on the cob with mayo and ketchup and parmesan cheese (not delicious). We also had the hot corn drink again (not rice, I stand corrected).

That night we went to the spa because Dani wanted a massage for her birthday. Cara, Ari, and I hung out in the Jacuzzi, which was very nice. After, David showed us how to play a similar game to liar’s poker with dice. We were all pretty tired from the day so we showered and went to sleep. That was our last day at Irtra before we headed to Playa Likin (the beach)!

Arrival in Guatemala City!

emsussman — Fri, 4 Jan 2013 04:05:00 GMT

Hola, from Guatemala City! I have been in Guatemala for almost 2 weeks now, and so far it has been incredible! After waking up at 3:00 AM, spending a layover in Houston chatting with a very friendly Guatemalan family, I finally arrived in Guatemala City around 2:30 PM. It took me an hour to get through customs and get my luggage and when I finally made it downstairs I was confused when I saw nobody waiting inside the airport to greet incoming travelers. When I looked out the glass windows of the airport I saw a massive crowd of people holding signs and waiting for their friends and family. Walking out of the comfort of the airpot was overwhelming as I looked around hoping to see Daniela and Ariela Farchi, two girls I met at Camp Mountain Chai this summer who invited me to stay with them after speaking to me for only a few hours. I had never even seen a picture of their parents, Oshi and David, so I hoped the girls had shown their parents what I look like, at least. After only about a minute, Ariela found me and she and Oshi made their way through the crowd to help me with my bags. They were so warm and welcoming, and I was relieved to be done traveling and exhausted from my early morning flight. As we drove through the city to their home, Ari pointed out various malls, friends housing developments, and the volcanoes surrounding the city. I learned that the girls attend an American school, which is how they know English so well. I also learned that most people live in gated communities with 15 foot, solid gates and around the clock security. Living outside of these communities leaves homes very vulnerable to theft.

Once we got to the Farchi's house I was greeted by their two maids, Betty and Mari. Betty is a sweet, small old woman who has worked for the Farchis since the girls were little. Mari is probably in her late 20's and has the features of an indigenous Guatemalan. She also is very kind and very willing to help. Betty spoke to me in Spanish, of which I understood nothing past "hello." Daniela was waiting upstairs for me because within the last month she had torn the ligaments and tendons in her foot and was on crutches. I also met their father, David. Everyone welcomed me with a big hug and a kiss, as if I was already a part of their family and they had known me forever. It was amazing to feel so welcome and comfortable.

That evening Dani, Ari, David, and I went to the salon so the girls could get pedicures and waxed before we left for our trip in a few days. I saw with them while they got their pedicures, but I had just had my nails done and didn't want one myself. The rapid, constant Spanish was more overwhelming than I had imagined, and I couldn’t pick up anything of the conversations. I found myself regretting not minoring in Spanish in college, but at least the Farchis all spoke English and could help me.

After the salon we went back to the house to have dinner. In this country, beans are a staple at every meal. It’s a good thing I like frijoles and tortillas or I would starve! Over the next few days I learned that I don’t like plantains or papaya (also staples) and that I am obsessed with a jam they have made from guava. I’m not so into all of the exotic fruits, but I still have a lot more to try.

The next day Dani, Ari, Oshi and I met Oshi’s sister Julie, her mom (Abue- short for Abuela), Julie’s 4 year old twins David and Yael, and her 2 year old son Ariel. Her husband Moty was flying in a couple of days later. At the mall I tried green mango with chile powder and lemon juice (lovely to try but nothing I’ll make a habit of). The kids played in a play area while Ari showed me around some of the Guatemalan stores. The Farchis buy most of their clothes in the states because it is much cheaper, but the store we went into was priced similarly to Forever 21 or H&M. After walking around the mall, the girls wanted me to try Pollo Campero for lunch. It’s basically a Guatemalan KFC, but it tastes better (still very fried). After lunch we went back to the house to relax and get ready for Shabbat dinner. I don’t think people started to arrive until 9:00 PM for dinner. There were a few other families, but the incredible thing about the Jewish community here is that they are all like one big, extended family. The kids of all ages hang out together and take care of one another and all of the adults are everyone’s parents. It is such a nice community full of very generous and warm people. Like any other Shabbat dinner, there was way too much delicious food with chicken, fish, and lots of sides. Everybody in the community knows English, which is nice, but the majority of conversation is, of course, held in Spanish. Everyone was very helpful in translating and allowing me to feel a part of various conversations. Around 10:30 we left to pick Cara up from the airport. Cara was my camper for 2 summers and is who introduced me to the Farchis, and without her I would never have had this opportunity. She got to know them because to younger girls, Pepis and Michelle, had come to camp two summers ago and were very homesick. Cara sat with them and spoke to them in Spanish, which everyone was grateful for. The girls LOVE Cara and were so excited to be able to see her again!

Because it took me an hour to get through customs, we figured it would take Cara just as long, but naturally it took her all of 20 minutes. She was without a phone waiting for us outside in the massive crowd of people. I spotted her right away and called out to her. She was borrowing someone’s phone, trying to get a hold of us, and the man charged her 10 quetzales (about 1 American dollar). She was very relieved to see us, needless to say. I was glad to have a familiar face and another native English speaker. Cara’s Spanish is very good and she helped me translate and learn more Spanish. Michelle and Pepis were so excited to see Cara that they spent the night with us at the Farchis. Exhausted from her flight, Cara had a late dinner, spent some time with her camper fan club, and we went to bed.

Saturday morning we woke up and got ready to meet Oshi’s family again, this time at an outdoor mall. Cara and I both wore thin long sleeve shirts, jeans, and flip flops. Oshi told us to bring warmer clothes, but all of the younger girls persuaded us that Oshi exaggerates and that we would be fine in what we were wearing. That was the last time Cara and I didn’t take Oshi’s advice; we froze! David took us to an ATM so we could get some quetzales. I asked him if I could give him any money towards the trip and his reply was “I believe in English you say, no fucking way.” He would not let me pay a cent. We all ate lunch at an Italian restaurant and had some amazing chocolate desserts. Then we took the little kids to play where they did a trampoline where they were strapped into a harness and bungee cords and jumped really high into the air. Yael went into a massive hamster ball in a pool and tried to roll around. While the kids played, Ari, Cara, Michelle, and I went ziplining (they call it canopy here). Dani couldn’t go because of her foot and Pepis was not into the heights. We had a blast! It was incredible to be right next to a mall and feel as though we were in the middle of a jungle! There was a river and a small waterfall. Ari and Michelle kept getting stuck in the middle because they didn’t weigh enough to make it across the bigger ziplines. One of the workers spoke to me in broken English and I spoke to him in broken Spanish; it’s amazing what you can communicate when you are forced to! What we thought was a 5-minute adventure ended up taking an hour. By the time we finished our feet and hands were numb. Michelle’s parents picked her up at the canopy and we dropped Pepis off at her house. Then we all went home and got into warm pajamas and made grilled cheese sandwiches over the fireplace. I tried a delicious hot, sweet, rice drink (one of my other favorites). Ari and Dani packed bags because we were leaving for our vacation early the next morning. That day was so much fun! I could hardly wait to experience more with this amazing family!